Ludhiana: Jagmeet Singh and Sukhandeep Kaur were among the brightest and most qualified candidates to have joined Punjab’s higher education system in 2021 assistant professor recruitment drive. Both have cracked NET, hold PhDs, and have been immersed in research and teaching for years. In fact, Jagmeet was pursuing Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) at the Central University of Punjab when he landed a job.But today, the couple find themselves staring at a bleak future.“We thought we had stable jobs. We completed our probation last Dec, but the govt never gave us any formal confirmation,” Jagmeet, who was posted at Sahibzada Zorawar Singh Govt College in Raikot’s Burj Hari Singh, said. He was also deputed to Govt College for Girls here and Govt College in Rara Sahib as physical education faculty during the past three years.Sukhandeep, his wife, also worked on deputation at Govt College for Girls here. Before her appointment through the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC), she was teaching at RIMT University in Mandi Gobindgarh, alongside pursuing research at Kurukshetra University. Like Jagmeet, she had completed her BEd, NET, PhD, and was hopeful of contributing to Punjab’s public education system. “We were working with complete dedication. We were not looking for jobs elsewhere because we believed this one was secure,” she said.But on July 11, the Supreme Court quashed the entire list of 1,158 assistant professor appointments made by PPSC in 2021, citing procedural lapses, including the absence of interviews. The case had been triggered by some guest faculty members, many of whom, Jagmeet and Sukhandeep allege, “do not even meet the minimum eligibility to teach in schools, let alone colleges.”“It’s shocking that on the petitions of people with questionable eligibility, the jobs of over a thousand qualified teachers were scrapped,” Jagmeet said, adding, “None of us had any role in the procedural choices made by the govt or the commission. If interviews were missing, how is that our fault? They can conduct interviews now, why completely ruin our careers?”The couple had recently taken a home loan after their marriage, assuming their dual incomes would support a stable future. “The full salary of one of us went into EMIs, rent, and fuel costs for deputation travel. We have not saved anything,” Jagmeet said, adding, “Now, both of us will be jobless. There’s no income in the household anymore. We were the sole earning members.”His wife said, “Perhaps the idea behind doing away with interviews altogether was transparency. In 2003, when Ravi Sidhu was the PPSC chairman, the recruitment process was marred by scandal and corruption in interviews. To prevent a repeat, the govt perhaps opted for a written test-based selection only. Now, ironically, that transparency is being punished.” “All we want is justice and recognition of our qualifications and work. We didn’t cheat the system, we entered through it honestly. And now, we are being punished for no fault of ours,” Sukhandeep said.
